Film & Art Night: Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month – Gregg Araki’s Totally F***ed Up

Friday, May 19, 7 pm ET

On the occasion of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month and taking inspiration from Japan Society Gallery’s exhibition on the Japanese American artist Kyohei Inukai, we present a screening of Totally F***ed Up, directed by one of Asian American cinema’s prominent artists, New Queer Cinema icon Gregg Araki. A camcorder confessional focusing on the private lives of six queer Los Angelenos, Gregg Araki’s seminal exploration of alienated youth—and the first of his Teen Apocalypse Trilogy (followed by The Doom Generation, Nowhere)—presents their fragmented desires and nihilistic musings in Godardian fashion. Terminally bored and unmoored in the media-saturated wasteland of ‘90s America, the group navigates the urban malaise of adolescent life, reconciling with the meaning of it all as they face homophobia, failed romance and existential dread. Featuring Araki’s signature needle drops, including This Mortal Coil, Red House Painters, and The Jesus and Mary Chain, Araki’s anarchic teenage ode to a doomed existence aims to “represent the unrepresented.”

Dir. Gregg Araki, 1993, 78 min., DCP, color. With James Duval, Roko Belic, Susan Behshid.

Film & Art Night
Please come early to enjoy our gallery before the screening or stay late to visit it after the film. The gallery and art installation will be open to the public for free admission from 6-9 pm for Free Friday Nights. Enjoy our current exhibition, Kyohei Inukai, and a special presentation of What Is Your Name? (2020), a sound and sculpture installation created by contemporary visual artists, Natsuki Takauji and Haksul Lee. Drinks will be available for purchase on site. Learn more about Kyohei Inukai and What Is Your Name?.

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Image: © 1993 Desperate Pictures.

Japan Society programs are made possible by leadership support from Booth Ferris Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Film programs are generously supported by ORIX Corporation USA, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and endowment support from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund.

Additional season support is provided by The Globus Family, David Toberisky, Akiko Koide and Shohei Koide, Geoff and Fumi Matters, Laurel Gonsalves, and David S. Howe. Transportation assistance is provided by Japan Airlines, the exclusive Japanese airline sponsor of Japan Society Film.

Kyohei Inukai is supported, in part, by a grant from the Vilcek Foundation.

Exhibitions and Arts & Culture Lecture Programs are made possible, in part, by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund; the Mary Griggs Burke Endowment Fund established by the Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation; The Masako Mera and Koichi Mera, PhD Fund for Education and the Arts; Peggy and Dick Danziger; Thierry Porté and Yasko Tashiro; and Friends of the Gallery. Support for Arts & Culture Lecture Programs is provided, in part, by the Sandy Heck Lecture Fund. Transportation assistance is provided by Japan Airlines, the exclusive Japanese airline sponsor for Japan Society gallery exhibitions.